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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29016999">Builder of Bots</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MectoTech/pseuds/MectoTech'>MectoTech</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Skylanders (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Friendship, Gen, Invention, Reformed Villain, Robots, Teamwork, Technology</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 13:22:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,496</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29016999</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MectoTech/pseuds/MectoTech</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Dr. Krankcase develops a new weapon to combat evil, he asks his friend Mags to peer review it before Dr. Krankcase puts it to use.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Builder of Bots</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Her blue eyes shine with excitement as she starts work on her next invention. Always the type who likes to stay occupied, Mags hardly goes a day without planning, building or tweaking an invention or two. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mags sets her stovepipe hat beside her on the wooden desk and pulls out a small pair of reading glasses. Normally, the monocle she fastened to her hat works well as her eyesight is uneven, but wearing the giant hat is inconvenient while sitting at her work desk like this. She starts by brainstorming possible functions for the new invention, then pulls out a blueprint, drafting a design and making note of certain parts she can use to build it. Occasionally, Mags mutters random details to herself as she works. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It grows late as Mags gets lost in the flow of her work. Until she hears a knock on the door, she had completely lost track of time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Come on in!" she hollers. As the door to Mags' workshop squeaks open, she can make out a familiar green face and set of wooden legs. Mags takes her glasses off.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Well, howdy, Dr. Krankcase! What brings you here, ol' buddy?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dr. Krankcase carries something in a tall, cardboard box. He scurries over to Mags’ desk.  “Hello there, Mags! I’ve been working on a new invention, something to help me fight for the greater goo’d alongside the Skylanders,” he cracks a smile, “And since you are a fellow inventor, and friend, I was hoping you would take a look at it.” Dr. Krankcase shifts the box in his hands.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sure I’ll help ya, Dr. K!” Mags tells him, putting her hat back on and flipping down the monocle.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Krankcase sets the box down on Mags’ desk and she looks inside.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A look of confusion crosses her face. “Uh… Krankcase, is this one of your hats?” she asks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Grinning, Dr. Krankcase circles around the desk to stand beside Mags. “Look closer,” he says, picking up the hat from the brim and lifting it out of the box. This action causes five wooden legs to pop out from the bottom, miniature replicas of the doctor’s own set of spider legs. Mags smiles, her confusion replaced with wonder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The legs are attached with pressure springs so they can be pushed up into the crown of the hat.” He removes his own hat and places the Hat Bot on his head, demonstrating how the retractable legs function. “But here is the </span>
  <em>
    <span>best </span>
  </em>
  <span>part-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dr. Krankcase pulls off the Hat Bot and tosses it across the room where it lands on its feet and scampers over to its creator. “These Hat Bots are engineered to attack when an enemy is near, but when all threats are neutralized, it simply follows me,” Dr. Krankcase explains.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hot buttered toast! This is quite impressive!” announces Mags.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why, thank you, Mags! I knew you would appreciate it.” After putting his hat back on, Krankcase lowers himself to pick up the Hat Bot and offers it to Mags, who gently takes it into her hands, admiring the craftsmanship. “I would be grateful if you could help peer review my Hat Bot, see if there are any bugs,” he asks politely, “The auto-targeting system is what I am most concerned about. It's a little difficult to properly test on enemies without looking suspicious, being an ex-Doom Raider and all.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sure thing. Just leave your lil’ Hat Bot here and I’ll conduct some preliminary tests. Once I finish tomorrow, I’ll tell ya what I think,” Mags proposes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thanks, I owe you one,” Dr. Krankcase says, fishing a remote out of the cardboard box and pressing a few buttons to ensure that the Hat Bot stays put rather than following him out of Mags’ workshop.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You don’t owe me squat, I’m doin’ this as a friend,” Mags assures, “Plus, there aren’t too many people ‘round here who share my passion for inventin’,” she adds.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dr. Krankcase smiles. “Well then, I’ll see you tomorrow, Mags,” he says, giving a wave as he sees himself out of the workshop.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After Dr. Krankcase leaves for the night (Mags knows it takes a while for him to get to bed with the hassle of removing his wooden legs) she sets the Hat Bot on her desk and begins inspecting it. She bends the legs, admiring the function of the joints, always impressed by Krankcase's ability to bring wood to life. The Hat Bot looks exactly like the top hats that Dr. Krankcase wears, right down to the goggles resting on the brim. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>They'll be easy to disguise</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Mags thinks, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Ol’ Krankcase really thinks of everything.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After testing the retractable legs a few times, even putting the Hat Bot on her own head once, Mags concludes that it is flawless. Satisfied with her work for the day, she decides to test how it functions in battle tomorrow and heads to her room for the night, leaving the Hat Bot stationary on her work desk.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>***</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The following morning, Mags gets right to work on finishing up testing on Dr. Krankcase's Hat Bot. Carrying the Hat Bot in the cardboard box Krankcase used to bring it in to her, she seeks out Buzz to borrow a training dummy or two to test the combat abilities on.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Howdy, Buzz! I’m gonna need to use some of your training dummies for testin’ out an invention.” Mags notices Buzz eyeing the box she is clutching protectively in her hands, “You’ll find out what this is soon enough. You of all people know the importance of a top-secret mission,” she gives Buzz a mischievous wink.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With a grin, Buzz responds “Sure thing, compadre, right this way.” He leads Mags to the small arena where he lets Skylanders practice on animatronic dummies. They walk at a leisurely pace due to Buzz’s peg leg causing him to limp. “Here we are. Now, you just pull this lever to summon a training dummy,” Buzz explains, “Once the dummy is defeated, then boomsticks! It’ll explode. Now, I have some secret ninja commando operations of my own to attend to. See you around, Mags,” he says before hobbling away again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mags removes her hat, setting it and the box off to the side. With a pull of the lever, a training dummy appears. She throws the Hat Bot in its direction and observes how it fights. Mags conducts several trials to see how the Hat Bot holds up in varied situations, sometimes throwing it away from the training dummy to observe how it goes after an enemy from a distance as well as testing the range, other times throwing it directly at the target to see if that causes the Hat Bot’s attacks to be more effective. She even tries throwing the Hat Bot from atop her head, as Dr. Krankcase presumably will do once the trials are complete. After gathering as much intel on the functionality of the Hat Bot as she can, Mags packs up and goes to find Dr. Krankcase and tell him what she thinks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As expected, Dr. Krankcase is in the library. Since the former Doom Raiders were tasked with reorganizing all of the Academy's books, Krankcase spends much of his time there, even if he is not working on sorting, as he also enjoys reading through some of the books.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Dr. Krankcase!” Mags calls, causing the doctor to swivel around on his wooden legs to face her. He smiles and sets down the books in his hands and scurries over to greet his fellow inventor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So… How’d it go?” Krankcase asks, rubbing his gloved hands together excitedly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This is one mighty-fine invention, Dr. K!” Mags exclaims, handing the box back to Dr. Krankcase. “You really did put a lot of thought into this here Hat Bot, but if you come back to my workshop, I’ll give ya some tips on how to tweak the battle function. Then it’ll be hot buttered toast </span>
  <em>
    <span>with cinnamon!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dr. Krankcase nods, “Thank you, Mags!” He takes the Hat Bot from her hands and follows Mags to her workshop, walking slowly so as to not pass her up. When they arrive, Mags spends the rest of the afternoon helping Dr. Krankcase make small alterations to the robot and the inventors banter amongst themselves as they work. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Now these Hat Bots will be unstoppable!” Krankcase proclaims once they finish. “I really appreciate you helping me out with this, Mags.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Anything for my ol’ inventor school buddy! It was nice catchin’ up with ya!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, good times, pal, good times,” the doctor replies.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The two inventors say their goodbyes and part ways for the day. Dr. Krankcase leaves the lab with a smile on his face, truly grateful to Mags. He looks forward to replicating this prototype Hat Bot and once he finishes his villain rehabilitation, the inventor will present the clones to Master Eon for approval for him to use as he fights alongside the Skylanders. His future is looking up.</span>
</p>
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